1. What is Zen?
Horizen (formerly ZenCash) is an incentive-driven application platform with optional zk-SNARK based privacy features that aims to provide everyone with complete control of their digital footprint. Launched in May 2017 (no ICO and no pre-mine), the leading-edge platform enables real-life use cases beyond the ZEN currency, including the ability to privately chat with others, publish information and go anywhere on the web with complete privacy.
The team is working towards releasing the Horizen platform upon the world so that anyone can build privacy-based applications with the option to monetise their creations. This will allow Horizen to bring thousands of real-life services to the mass market.
The platform itself is being built on top of a truly decentralised side-chain based system powered by Horizen’s multi-tier node network. The project utilises a sustainable funding mechanism and intends to empower all ZEN holders with decision making authority via a treasury governance system designed in collaboration with their partners, Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK).
Horizen has one of the largest node networks in the industry with ~29,000 reachable nodes across 56 countries, a passionate worldwide community, a team of over 50 professionals, and an ambitious roadmap driven by continuous investments in cutting-edge research and development.
This document covers the technical aspect of running and operating a Zen node. The software will download and store a full copy of the Zen blockchain. Currently, the blockchain is ~19GB, in the unlikely scenario that every new block is the maximum size the blockchain will grow by ~34.5GB/month (2MB maximum block size every 2.5 minutes).
Zen is based on ZCash’s code, if you have previously worked with ZCash, much of this guide will be familiar to you.
